Europe at the Mercy of Qatar? - Drieu Godefridi

 

by Drieu Godefridi

Other geopolitical actors, who are known to have an interest in the resolutions of the European Parliament, have even more considerable means at their disposal.

• The stadiums for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar were built in conditions described as slave-like and hellish. For ten years, armies of Asian workers were put to work for miserable wages in wretched living conditions. According to the Guardian, since the emirate was awarded the World Cup, 6,500 workers died on Qatar's construction sites. This carnage did not predestine Qatar for praise from the Socialist Group in the European Parliament.

• "The recent backroom deal approved by the Bureau to appoint a new EP Secretary-General is emblematic of an institution that thinks that rules for ethics and integrity should only apply to others." — Michiel van Hulten, director of Transparency International EU, December 10, 2022.

• That the Socialist Group, the second-largest in the European Parliament, was so easily bribed by little Qatar, to the extent of cheering on the "labour law reforms" of a slave emirate, is yet to be confirmed by the courts. It is also possibly just the "tip of the iceberg."

• Other geopolitical actors, who are known to have an interest in the resolutions of the European Parliament, have even more considerable means at their disposal.

Belgian federal police recently found €150,000 ($157,700) in cash at the Brussels home of the Vice-President of the European Parliament, Eva Kaili (pictured), who was then arrested and charged with corruption. That a small country such as Qatar could so easily bribe the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, to the point of causing it to say the opposite of what it supported a week earlier, is dismaying. (Photo by Menelaos Myrillas/SOOC/AFP via Getty Images)

Belgian federal police recently found €150,000 ($157,700) in cash at the Brussels home of the Vice-President of the European Parliament, Eva Kaili (Panhellenic Socialist Movement), who was then arrested and charged with corruption. She remains in jail. Also arrested were Luca Visentini, secretary general of the International Trade Union Confederation, and former socialist MEP Pier-Antonio Panzeri. Francesco Giorgi, Kaili's domestic partner and former parliamentary assistant to Panzeri, was also arrested. The home of MEP Marc Tarabella (Socialist Party) was searched.

Notably, Panzeri is the president of the NGO "Fight Impunity", of which Giorgi is one of the founders. Niccolò Figà-Talamanca was also taken into custody, according to the Italian newswire Ansa. Figà-Talamanca is the executive director of another NGO, "No Peace Without Justice," which is based in Rome and Brussels and ostensibly focused on international criminal justice, human rights and the promotion of democracy in North Africa and the Middle East. It also happens to have the same Brussels address as Fight Impunity: 41 rue Ducale.

According to media reports, and with respect to the presumption of innocence, this elite of European socialism and trade unionism was corrupted by Qatar to praise the "progress" of the emirate in the field of "labour law." According to the New York Times:

"The case, which Belgian authorities say they have been building for over a year with the help of their secret services, has uncovered what prosecutors say was a cash-for-favors scheme at the heart of the European Union. And it highlighted the vulnerabilities in an opaque, notoriously bureaucratic system that decides policies for 450 million people in the world's richest club of nations."

Faced with this information, the first reaction of a large number of Europeans, judging by social media networks, was a feeling of humiliation. That a small country such as Qatar could so easily bribe the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, to the point of causing it to say the opposite of what it supported a week earlier, is indeed dismaying.

Let us recall the facts. The stadiums for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar were built in conditions described as slave-like and hellish. For ten years, armies of Asian workers were put to work for miserable wages in wretched living conditions. According to the Guardian, since the emirate was awarded the World Cup, 6,500 workers died on Qatar's construction sites. This carnage did not predestine Qatar for praise from the Socialist Group in the European Parliament.

The change in Tarabella's discourse, for example, was dazzling. Initially hostile to Qatar hosting the World Cup, Tarabella suddenly became its advocate on television: "Qatar has made remarkable efforts in terms of labour rights", the socialist MEP stated on LN24 on December 11.

"Qatar, with the help of NGOs, the International Labour Organisation... has made clear progress which is now being welcomed.... The signal to say we are going to boycott diplomatically is a bad signal. Why is that? Because it means that even if they have made progress, particularly in relation to the welfare of workers, housing allowances, a decent minimum wage, working conditions in which, during the hot summer months, people no longer work between ten in the morning and 3.30 pm, and the abandonment of slavery... not everything is perfect in Qatar, I repeat... if, in spite of all this, you boycott, you are giving the signal that the efforts made are useless."

Kaili visited Qatar in person and praised the emirate's "labour reforms". According to the local press, Kaili said that she represented 500 million European citizens who consider that "Qatar's progress represents common values".

Are Members of the European Parliament in financial need? An MEP earns a gross €13,944 (roughly $14,000) per month, including an expenditure allowance, plus €4,716 ($5,000) a year for travel expenses and €338 ($358) for each day of attendance at meetings of the Parliament's bodies. Usually, though, such considerations are irrelevant. People are generally susceptible to bribes.

"While this may be the most egregious case of alleged corruption the European Parliament has seen in many years," explained Michiel van Hulten, director of Transparency International EU, "it is not an isolated incident."

"Over many decades, the Parliament has allowed a culture of impunity to develop, with a combination of lax financial rules and controls and a complete lack of independent (or indeed any) ethics oversight. In many ways it has become a law unto itself. Every serious attempt to improve accountability is blocked by the Parliament's ruling Bureau, with the acquiescence of a majority of MEPs. The recent backroom deal approved by the Bureau to appoint a new EP Secretary-General is emblematic of an institution that thinks that rules for ethics and integrity should only apply to others.... As a first step, the European Commission should now publish its long-delayed proposal on the creation of an independent EU ethics body, with powers of investigation and enforcement."

That the Socialist Group, the second-largest in the European Parliament, was so easily bribed by little Qatar, to the extent of cheering on the "labour law reforms" of a slave emirate, has yet to be confirmed by the courts. It is also possibly just the "tip of the iceberg."

Other geopolitical actors, who are known to have an interest in the resolutions of the European Parliament, have even more considerable means at their disposal.

This affair also reveals -- if it were still necessary -- the extreme energy distress of the European continent. For 20 years, Europe has been systematically destroying the only truly European source of energy that is being produces -- nuclear power, and has refused to even consider exploiting the underground shale gas that is so abundant in some European regions. As a result, Europe finds itself in a situation of extreme dependence on the regimes, generally authoritarian, that supply its gas. This means Russia and, increasingly, Qatar.

This situation has been perfectly understood by Qatar, which published the following statement as soon as possible retaliatory measures were announced following discovery of the alleged corruption:

"The decision to impose... a discriminatory restriction that limits dialogue and cooperation on Qatar before the legal process has ended, will negatively affect regional and global security cooperation, as well as ongoing discussions around global energy poverty and security."

The blackmail is clear.

Drieu Godefridi is a jurist (Saint-Louis University of Louvain), a philosopher (Saint-Louis University of Louvain) and a doctor in legal theory (Paris IV-Sorbonne). He is the author of The Green Reich.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19289/europe-corruption-qatar

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Ex-Capitol Police boss says politics hampered Jan. 6 security under Pelosi: 'Recipe for disaster' - John Solomon

 

by John Solomon

Ex-Chief Steven Sund compares Capitol security and intelligence lapses to 9/11, says he was "dumbfounded" by threat warnings that were kept from him.

 

The Capitol Police chief who handled the Jan. 6 riot says political bureaucracy under Speaker Nancy Pelosi put optics over safety and hampered his department from crafting an appropriate security plan to protect the home of Congress that fateful day.

Steven Sund, who resigned as the head of the $600 million a year Capitol Police Department after the tragedy, told the "Just the News, No Noise" television show on Wednesday that significant lapses occurred inside his department, inside the political leadership of Congress and across federal law enforcement and security agencies in the days before the Capitol riot.

Sund warned that the Capitol still remains vulnerable to future attacks because it has not addressed the core intelligence and security failures exposed that day or streamlined the political bureaucracy that governs his former force. The interview was part of Sund's tour to promote his new book "Courage under Fire."

"I point out in the book how politicized security on Capitol [Hill] is, and that hasn't changed. It's still the same," he said. "You still have way too much politics playing a role in security. All the oversight over the police department is all politically aligned. And anytime you have oversight that reports to a certain political party, it's a recipe for disaster."

Sund said that as chief he could not make major decisions about security planning for events like Jan. 6 without getting approval of the Capitol Police Board or alerting the House and Senate sergeants at arms. He directly challenged Pelosi's claim in a February 2021 news conference that her Speaker's office played no role in Capitol security, noting he communicated with Pelosi through then-House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving, who resigned along with Sund.

"A lot of people think okay, I'm the Chief,” he said. "So I'm at the top of the pyramid as far as security at the Capitol. I'm actually at the bottom ... You've got the Capitol Police Board, and the Capitol Police Board has communications with the House and Senate leadership. So the line of communications between me and leadership would be through the respective sergeant at arms.

"So in the case of Speaker Pelosi, it would be through Paul Irving, for any of that direct line communications back and forth. So if there is intelligence going up, or intelligence coming down, it would go through Paul Irving to the respective leadership."

Sund confirmed an anecdote in a report released by House Republicans last month and reported by Just the News that a top aide in Pelosi's office was involved enough in security discussions to have even edited a security plan for Jan. 6 that was communicated to lawmakers.

FINAL HouseGOPReport of Jan. 6 Investigation.pdf

"Some of the 'Dear Colleagues' letters [talk] about some of the security that's in place — parking, directing people which entrances to use, stuff like that, and it was no secret that they would want to have the leadership's position, whether it's the House or Senate, they would want to know what communications were being put out across the campus," he explained. "So they did have a review and often edited these."

Sund also confirmed earlier reporting by Just the News on the events that led to National Guard troops not being deployed to the Capitol ahead of Jan. 6. Capitol Police documents reviewed by Just the News show the Trump Pentagon first offered National Guard troops to Sund's department on Jan. 2, 2021, four full days ahead of the tragedy. The department initially declined the help but quickly changed course and asked for permission to deploy troops, only to be turned down.

Sund said he first requested National Guard troops be deployed on the morning of Jan. 3, 2021, but was turned down because political leaders did not like the optics of troops carrying weapons and guarding the Capitol.

"So it was I believe at 9:34 in the morning when I first went and asked for it and was denied because of the concern for optics, the look of the National Guard," he said.

"The first one I asked, Paul Irving, for the National Guard, he used the term 'optics,'" Sund recalled, adding that a military general later used the same term in expressing reservations about sending the Guard to the Capitol. 

"I'll never forget it," said Sund quoting the general saying, "I'm concerned of the optics of the military standing in line with the Capitol in the background."

"So here they are both using the exact same term," he continued. "I point that out in the book that I really don't find it a coincidence. And I tend to wonder what communications went on outside my knowledge. But there's a concern for optics that is over the concern for my men and women being beaten, which has been shown on national TV."

Sund said he was never fully briefed on a vast pool of intelligence that came in from the FBI, the Homeland Security Department, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Washington D.C. police department as early as Dec. 21, 2020 that warned that extremists were discussing specific plans to attack the Capitol, storm the joint session of Congress that was certifying the 2022 election, invade the tunnels used by lawmakers to travel back and forth to the Capitol or bring weapons to the event that eventually turned violent.

You can read one of those intelligence reports here:

NugentIntelEmajl12-21-20.pdf

Sund said some of the blame should fall on the federal agencies who failed to make a bigger deal of the level of threat that was being picked up in raw intelligence.

"Intelligence was treated completely different on Jan. 6 than it usually was for major events in Washington, D.C." he said. "I've handled numerous national special events, special security events, numerous demonstrations.

"Anytime we had an event that had a even a minute amount of the intelligence string that we're seeing associated with Jan. 6 now coming in, the FBI would do executive briefings, a conference call with the area leaders, or what we call a JIB, a joint intelligence bulletin with the Department of Homeland Security — none of that was done January 6, and when you see the level of intelligence now that was out there, you're just dumbfounded by it — that didn't occur." 

The costs of failure to share intelligence and threat assessments across bureaucratic and institutional lines "were lessons that we should have learned from September 11 that we still haven't learned by January 6," Sund lamented.

Sund acknowledges some fault also lies with his own department's intelligence division, where analysts were deeply concerned that threat information had not been shared with decision-makers, documents now made public by whistleblowers reveal.

EricHoarIntelligenceFailuresMemo1-9-21RedactedAddresses.pdf

"I see there's significant intelligence coming into my intelligence unit that's not being reported up," he said. "We do a total of four intelligence assessments  ... The first three say it's going to all be like the previous ones. Even the fourth one said it's going to be like the previous two MAGA events and that people weren't going to march, they're going to stay in their designated areas — with a single paragraph at the end that talks a little bit about it could be dangerous for law enforcement, could have violence, people may show up with weapons, things that we've seen in the first two MAGA events."

"But the very next day, that same intelligence unit puts out another intelligence bulletin saying low probability of arrest or civil disobedience. The very next day they do it again. And on Jan. 6, they put out another one saying low probability of civil disobedience. So there's just so much confusion going on. None of that high level of intelligence that we know now existed within DHS, FBI and, to a certain point, within my own intelligence unit, got up to the necessary people to do the planning and do the coordination for security for Jan. 6."

John Solomon

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/congress/ex-capitol-police-boss-says-politics-hampered-jan-6-security-under-pelosi

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Key GOP senator slams 'complete state of denial' over potential COVID vaccine harm - Charlotte Hazard

 

by Charlotte Hazard

After CDC acknowledges "signals" on vaccine injury, Sen. Ron Johnson blames "COVID cartels" for suppressing stories for months.

 

One of the Senate's leading critics of the federal government pandemic response is slamming the "complete state of denial" in official Washington over the growing evidence of widespread COVID-19 vaccine injuries.

Some studies have raised concerns that the vaccines or their boosters have weakened immune responses or failed to protect Americans from the virus as advertised, while the CDC has released data showing hundreds of safety signals have been identified in adverse event reporting databases for two COVID-19 vaccines, the Epoch Times reports.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), the ranking member on the powerful Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, began raising such concerns from medical experts and whistleblowers last year. He told Just the News on Wednesday that delays in acknowledging such concerns have put people at risk and eroded trust in public health agencies.

"It's enormously frustrating because I think we could have prevented so much harm if our federal health agencies would have been honest and transparent," Johnson said during a wide-ranging interview on the John Solomon Reports podcast. 

Draft operating procedure guidance for the CDC and FDA calls for officials to monitor the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) to identify "potential new safety concerns for COVID-19 vaccines." 

"It has just baffled me about why we are in a complete state of denial in terms of the Biden administration, the federal health agencies, the pharmaceutical companies, the mainstream media, the Big Tech social media giants, and the COVID cartels suppressing this information," Johnson said. 

In a study published by Science Immunology, third doses of the Pfizer vaccine are shown to possibly weaken the immune response against COVID-19.

Johnson said he is not anti-vaccine by any measure but he has been in touch with many who are vaccine-injured and wants to get their stories out to the public. 

"I believe their stories, and all these people want is to be heard, seen and believed so they can get help so they can go receive therapy," Johnson explained. "Because without the acknowledgement that vaccine injuries are real, the medical establishment is just blowing them off. They won't even consider that as a cause of their ailments. It's really tragic."

Charlotte Hazard

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/coronavirus/holdcdc-confirms-existence-covid-19-vaccine-injuries-ron-johnson-calls

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Chinese Communist Party Aggression against America - Eileen F. Toplansky

 

by Eileen F. Toplansky

It takes many forms, and it's just as dangerous in peacetime as in wartime.

Joe Biden's decision to allow a Chinese company "to own 370 acres of land within 12 miles of Grand Forks Air Force Base in Grand Forks, North Dakota" portends dire consequences for America.

According to Gordon Chang,

China will be able to use a proposed $700 million corn milling plant on the site to spy on military communications and even disrupt them. In Beijing, they must be shaking their heads in disbelief at the inability of the U.S. to protect some of its most sensitive communications.

Consequently,

Fufeng USA, a subsidiary of a Shandong province-based agribusiness giant, is, at least for the moment, free to build its wet corn milling and biofermentation plant in Grand Forks.

Moreover, "[t]he Chinese will now have the ability to conduct passive, persistent surveillance of both signals controlling experimental drones that are routinely tested at that USAF facility as well as signals that are routinely beamed to and from sensitive U.S. military satellites[.]"

If that were not alarming enough, consider the fact that "[s]hould the U.S. and China end up in a shooting war over, say, Taiwan, Fufeng's property near the Air Force base could be used to send malicious signals to jam passing satellites or disrupt the operation of drones.  We have made ourselves vulnerable on our own territory."

So while the American military establishment worries about which pronouns to use, our enemies cannot believe their good fortune.  The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has already doubled its nuclear stockpile in just two years.  Moreover, in its arsenal of weaponry, China has declared "a people's war" on the United States by using investments to undermine American strength.

According to Texas Scorecard, the CCP is doggedly pursuing the American agriculture infrastructure. 

Agricultural land, and the oftentimes attached food processing, serves a vital function in the insulation of any nation from foreign powers.

Now, with an ongoing military conflict in eastern Europe, the need to be agriculturally independent is gaining deserved attention.

Yet, "as is the case with energy, foreign companies and individuals have a foot in the door and remain ready to take advantage of the beachheads they've established in the past two decades."

For example,

Based in Smithfield, Virginia, Smithfield Foods was acquired in 2013 by the China-based company Shuanghui. Renamed WH Group, Shuanghui not only owns meat operations stateside, but it is the top meat processor in China. 

WH Group's acquisition of Smithfield made it the largest hog producer in the United States. But their reach does not end there. Filings with the SEC in 2016 lists Texas among the states with facilities owned or leased by WH Group.

In August of 2022, Congressman Ralph Norman noted that "China owns and controls almost 192,000 acres of farmland right here in the United States."

It is critical to note that "[f]oreign investors from China are under the total and absolute control of the communist Chinese government."  Whether it be military threats, cyber-attacks, or outright theft of intellectual property, the CCP is in a race to outmaneuver the United States.  The CCP's  malevolence knows no end.

From a homeland security standpoint, we cannot find ourselves in a situation where a squabble with China could trigger a decrease in production from the U.S. farms they control.

Congressman Norman co-sponsored "H.R. 7892, which would prohibit the sale of U.S. farmland to anyone associated with the communist Chinese government."  Additionally, he co-sponsored H.R. 5490, which "requires the USDA to conduct a detailed analysis of the extent of foreign influences in the agricultural industry."

Land grabbing is when a government, company, or other entity purchases large swathes of land in another country — [which] can affect local land rights and agricultural production, sometimes putting local food security at risk.

Foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land doubled from 2009 to 2019, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) records, and policymakers have become increasingly concerned about foreign control of the U.S. food supply.

And if you are like me and wondering why pecans are hardly on the grocery shelves anymore, the Chinese are involved with this as well.  Over the past decade, China has massively disrupted the pecan market.

Equally alarming is that "young and aspiring farmers say access to land is their largest barrier to starting a successful farm business.  With an aging U.S. farmer population and not enough new farmers able to enter the industry, more land will inevitably be converted to other uses or sold to foreign and domestic investors unless policies are put in place to support the next generation of farmers."

Then there is the concern with the electric grid and other critical infrastructure.

In August of 2021, Texas governor Greg Abbott signed the Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act.  The purpose was to "[p]revent business entities associated with 'hostile nations' from accessing the Texas electricity grid and other pieces of 'critical infrastructure,' including computer networks and waste treatment systems."

In fact, "it was a direct response to one Chinese billionaire and his plans to build a wind farm in southwest Texas."

Since 2016, a company owned by Xinjiang-based real estate tycoon Sun Guangxin had spent an estimated $110 million buying up land in Texas' Val Verde County. Located on the Mexico border, Val Verde is home to about 50,000 people, the small town of Del Rio, family-owned hunting ranches—and Laughlin Air Force Base, a training ground for military pilots.

In less than two years Sun bought up roughly 140,000 acres in the county through subsidiaries he controls. He set aside 15,000 acres of that land for his company GH America Energy LLC to oversee the construction of a wind farm that could feed into Texas' electricity grid, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). 

But "Texas ... seems to have been slow to react, considering the lack of enforcement of the Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act, and the loopholes in said law."

In fact, the issue of land-grabbing is front and center as the new year begins.  The Chinese Communist Party continues to make incursions by "absorbing Texas soil for strategic geopolitical ends."  Unfortunately, while most Americans presume that American soil is reserved for our citizens and businesses, this is clearly not the case.

Texas Scorecard has investigated the CCP's infiltration of Texas' educational apparatus as well as the CCP's infiltration of Texas agricultural land and while many dismiss these concerns, a "review of adversarial countries' actions suggests that land holdings are strategic [moves] and could undermine national and resource security.

Both Republicans and Democrats have warned of the national security implications of such ownership of U.S.-based assets.

While American troops complain about the injection of Critical Race Theory and woke ideology, the Chinese Communist Party absolutely sees its ongoing struggle with America as a wartime engagement.

The commander of U.S. Strategic Command, Adm. Charles Richard, has stated that "we are witnessing one of the largest shifts in global geostrategic power the world has ever witnessed."

Our military hardware is outdated.  We are surrendering our land.  We are leaving our food needs and electric grid vulnerable.  We are weakening our security and ability to defend ourselves.  Listen to this chilling 16-minute audio here.

According to Gordon Chang, "President Joe Biden can use his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers act of 1977 to block the sale of the Grand Forks land and the building of the milling facility." 

The question is, will this compromised president use his authority to block the sale, or will China get an even greater foothold on America?  Will anyone with power stand up to this existential threat to America?

Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com.

Image via Max Pixel.

Eileen F. Toplansky

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/01/chinese_communist_party_aggression_against_america.html

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Biden Admin: Jews Visiting Holy Site is “Unacceptable” - Daniel Greenfield

 

by Daniel Greenfield

How do you make apartheid sound good? Just call it the "historic status quo".

 

How do you make apartheid sound good? Easy. Just call it the “historic status quo”.

Under Muslim rule, the historic status quo by the invaders was to ban Jews from their own holiest site, the Temple Mount. When Jerusalem was liberated, there was a vocal insistence by the Muslims who had launched a war to destroy the Jewish State and by the “international community” that Jews continue to be barred from their own holy site in the name of the “historic status quo”. And if that sounds too unbelievable, here’s Ned Price, Biden’s State Department spokesman saying that Jews must continue to be banned.

So let me say broadly on the first question that the United States stands firmly for preservation of the historic status quo with respect to the holy sites in Jerusalem. We oppose any unilateral actions that undercut the historic status quo. They are unacceptable. The President has previously underscored the need to preserve that historic status quo at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount, as has the Secretary. We have done so repeatedly with our Israeli partners; we have done so repeatedly with our Jordanian partners, whose special role as custodian of Muslim holy places in Jerusalem we deeply appreciate. That is a message we will continue to reinforce.

Historic status quo sounds much better than apartheid, doesn’t it?

Jews visiting the Temple Mount is “unacceptable” to the Biden administration.

Ned Price then goes on to defend the Muslim terrorist heckler’s veto and to blame Israel for provoking the violence by… visiting a Jewish holy site.

“As I said before regarding this visit, we’re deeply concerned by any unilateral actions that have the potential to exacerbate tensions, precisely because we want to see the opposite happen. We want to see tensions reduced; we want to see tensions diminished. The – we know that the exceedingly rare instances of previous high-profile visits to Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount have only exacerbated tensions. This is not an academic question. We have seen what has transpired in the past, and we continue, as I said before, to strongly support the longstanding, historic status quo at the site.”

The “longstanding, historic status quo” was the product of conquest, oppression, slavery and mass murder.

What would the “historic status quo” of non-Muslims in the Middle East be in general? Or black people in the West?

“By the way, we also know and we took note of the fact that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s governing platform calls for preservation of the historic status quo with relation to the holy places. We expect him to follow through on that commitment. The Secretary has said very clearly before that it’s absolutely critical that all sides exercise restraint, refrain from provocative actions and rhetoric, and preserve that historic status quo at Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount, both in word and in practice. That’s what we’ll be watching for; that’s what we’ll be using our words to encourage.”

That’s the State Department spokesman demanding that Jews be banned from their holy site because their visits are “provocative”.

Muslim violence is not provocative.

This obscene show somehow gets worse with a question from an Islamist propagandist.

QUESTION: Ned, just let me remind you – and if you’ll allow me a couple more questions on the Palestinian issue. If I may remind you, back in 2000 – September 2000, September 28th, as a matter of fact, 2000 – Ariel Sharon stormed Haram Sharif and launched one of the most violent episodes in Palestinian-Israeli history that went on for a very, very long time. We see the same thing happening again. I mean, Mr. Sharon went on to become prime minister at the time. Ben-Gvir may become the next prime minister.

You said you are going to judge these people by their actions. I think you said that, the Secretary of State said that, everybody said that in government. So that is the action. This is the action. How are you going to deal with this government?

MR PRICE: Well first, Said, Prime Minister Netanyahu has said repeatedly that he is setting the policy of this government. We will be dealing directly with Prime Minister Netanyahu. We already have been dealing directly with senior representatives of the prime minister.

But your point is precisely the one I alluded to just a moment ago. This is not an academic question. We know the historic – historical analogies, the historical corollaries. And that’s why we’re deeply concerned. We’re deeply concerned by any unilateral actions because – precisely because they have the potential to exacerbate tensions, or worse. And that’s why we can look back to 2000, we can look back to previous instances. It’s also why we call for the preservation of the historic status quo.

Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount. Islamists insist on describing Jewish visits as “storming”. It’s also been widely established that his visit had nothing to do with the violence which was already being prepped.

Price however agrees and echoes that particular Big Lie.

There is a historical analogy here. It’s apartheid.

“Now, when it comes to the historic status quo, it’s not for me to define from here what the historic status quo is; it’s not for the United States to prescribe what the historic status quo is. That’s a question of history. It’s a question for —”

It’s a question for the Muslim conquerors who lost, but whose bigotry and oppression, the Biden administration is determined to uphold.

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/biden-admin-jews-visiting-holy-site-is-unacceptable/

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Raymond Ibrahim Video: The Death of Christianity in Bethlehem - Frontpage editors

 

by Frontpage editors

Shillman Fellow gives Israel's i24NEWS the shocking details.

 

The Israeli news site i24NEWS recently interviewed Raymond Ibrahim, a Shillman Fellow at the Freedom Center, on the shocking findings of his article, “Bethlehem: Christianity Dying Where It Started.”

Check out it out below:

Frontpage editors

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/raymond-ibrahim-video-the-death-of-christianity-in-bethlehem/

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Breaking: dod controlled covid ‘vaccines’ – were never ‘safe and effective’ - AFP Staff Writer

 

by AFP Staff Writer

Hat tip: Dr. Jean-Charles Bensoussan

New Documents Reveal Department of Defense Controlled COVID-19 Program from the Start

 

---

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 5, 2022

New Docs Reveal Department of Defense Controlled COVID-19 Program from the Start

FDA Vaccine Approval Process was Theater

A combinationofthePREP Act, Emergency Use Authorization, and Other Transactions Authority (OTA) Shielded Big Pharma, Agencies,and Medical Participants that Delivered Unregulated Vaccines from Any Liability

WASHINGTON, DC -According to congressionally passed statutes, research of active laws,and extra details obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the Department of Defense owns, implements, and oversees the COVID-19 vaccine program as a“Countermeasure” to foreign attack.While the public was bombarded with an orchestrated fear campaign,the U.S.Government managed the Covid response as a national security threat.

The research and documentswere obtained bya former executive of a pharmaceutical Contract Research Organization (CRO), Sasha Latypova,and intensive legal researcherKatherine Watt.

The Three-Legged Stool

The undercover operation was orchestrated utilizing three critical legal maneuvers:

1. Emergency Use Authorization EUA.

2. Prep Act,

3. Other Transactions Authority

President Trump declared a Public Health Emergency (PHE) on March 13, 2020, under the Stafford Act, putting the National Security Council in charge of the Covid policy.Covid-19 vaccines are “medical countermeasures” – a grey area of products that are not regulated as vaccines or medicines.

“They put the National Security Council in charge and treated it as an act of war,” said Latypova.

 According to Operation Warp Speed/ASPR reports, the DoD ordered, oversaw, and tightly managed the development, manufacture, and distribution of Covid countermeasures,mainly utilizing the DoD’s previously established network of military contractors and consortia.

Department of Defense, BARDA, and HHS ordered all Covid countermeasures, including “vaccines” as prototype demonstrations of large-scale manufacturing, avoiding regulations and transparency under Other Transaction Authority. As prototypes used under EUA during PHE, Covid countermeasures, including “vaccines,” need not comply with the U.S. laws for manufacturing quality, safety, and labeling.

“The implication is that theU.S.Government authorized and funded the deployment of noncompliant biological materials on Americans without clarifying their “prototype” legal status, making the materials not subject to normal regulatory oversight, all while maintaining a fraudulent pseudo- “regulatory” presentation to the public,” said Latypova.

“Most incredible is the fact that current Laws enacted by the United States Congress appear to make the coverup actions LEGAL!”

Under the PHE, medical countermeasures are not regulated or safeguarded as pharmaceutical products (21 USC 360bbb-3(k).

The American people were led to believe thatthe FDA, CDC, and figureheads like Anthony Fauci oversaw the COVID-19 vaccine program.Their involvement was an orchestrated information operation. All decisions concerning the COVID-19 vaccine research, materials acquisition, distribution, and information sharing were tightly controlled by the DoD.

Hundreds of Covid countermeasurescontractshave been uncovered. Many disclosures are in redacted form. However, Latypova and Watt have found sources to fill in the details. A review of these contracts indicates a high degree of control by the U.S. Government (DoD/BARDA). It specifies the scope of deliverables as “demonstrations” and “prototypes” only while excluding clinical trials and manufacturing quality control from the scope of work paid for by the contracts. To ensure that the Pharma is free to conduct the fake clinical trials without financial risk, the contracts include the removal of all liability for the manufacturers and any contractors along the supply and distribution chain under the 2005 PREP Act and related federal legislation.

Why is no action by regulators or courts? According to Latypova and Watt, a combination of recently passed legislation and executive orders make it LEGAL to LIE! The HHS Secretary is accountable to no one if the Health National Emergency continues to be extended by Congress every three months.

A significant information operation was set in motion the minute COVID-19 hit. The U.S. government, the intelligence community, the media, and Big Tech colluded to orchestrate and implement an intense pressure campaign designed to get the vaccine legally designated under the Emergency Use Authorization Act while vilifying dissenting doctors, critics, and viable alternative treatments. This designation allowed for speedy manufacturing devoid of the standard safety and public health protocols.

For a vaccine to receive designation under the EUA, there can be no other known treatments or cures. Therefore, many proven treatments such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine were blacklisted in the media and dismissed as “horse dewormers” when these cheap, readily available drugs were in the past heralded for their effectiveness.

Eminent COVID-treating doctors such as Peter M. McCullough and Pierre Kory have faced unprecedented attacks on their medical credentials.

AFP Staff Writer

Source: https://armedforces.press/2023/01/05/breaking-dod-controlled-covid-vaccines-from-the-start-under-national-security-program-lied-the-entire-time-were-never-safe-and-effective/

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Pro-choice Biden not invited to Benedict funeral, Vatican cites deceased's wishes for simplicity - Nick Givas

 

by Nick Givas

The Church has previously made clear that Biden's pro-choice stance on abortion contrasts with that of the faith.

President Joe Biden was not invited to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's funeral, which is set for Thursday, sparking speculation about what factored into the decision not to include the president, a Roman Catholic who supports legal abortion. 

The Vatican on Wednesday told Just the News only two countries were invited to send official delegations: Italy and Germany, the latter being Benedict's birthplace.

The Vatican spokesperson also said the small international delegation is in line with the wishes of Benedict — and the Vatican — for a "simple, solemn funeral" and that the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Joseph Donnelly will represent his country at the service. 

The Church has previously made clear that Biden's pro-choice stance on abortion contrasts with that of the faith, which opposes abortion in almost all scenarios and makes almost no exceptions for the practice. 

In 2019, while a candidate for the White House, Biden was denied Communion by a South Carolina priest based on his pro-abortion stances.

Shortly afterward, Cardinal Timothy Dolan suggested Biden's stance was reason enough for him to be denied the Eucharist.

"You are publicly at odds with an issue of substance — critical substance," Dolan told Fox News. "We're talking about life and death in the church. You personally, out of integrity should not approach Holy Communion — because that implies that you're in union with all the church beliefs."

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked by a reporter on Tuesday about why Biden will not attend the funeral, and gave a response similar to the Vatican's.

"The U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, Joe Donnelly, will represent the United States at the funeral of the Pope in line with the wishes of the late Pope and the Vatican," she said. "This is what their requests were."

Jean-Pierre said Biden is in mourning with other Catholics over Benedict's passing and added that the president highlighted Benedict's "generosity," which made him a pillar of the international faith community.

Who will represent the US at Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's funeral? And what did the late Pope mean to Catholic President Joe Biden?
Correspondent @owentjensen asked White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about both of these topics relating to Pope Benedict. pic.twitter.com/Iaahas5XMa

— EWTN News Nightly (@EWTNNewsNightly) January 3, 2023

 

The president was directly confronted about the matter on Wednesday outside the White House. "You're not attending his funeral tomorrow though, why?" asked reporter Owen Jensen of Catholic news network EWTN.

"Well, why do you think?" Biden shot back.

"Well, you tell me," Jensen pressed.

"You know why," Biden replied. 

Jensen continued to push for an answer.

"The reason I'm not attending the funeral tomorrow is it would take an entourage of a thousand people to show up," Biden finally said. "We would move everything in the wrong direction." 

Pope Francis has also been critical of Biden's stance on abortion in the past, highlighting that members of the president's Democrat Party are largely in favor of the practice with little regulation. 

"Is it fair to take a human life to solve a problem?" Francis asked during a Univision interview this past summer. "Whatever it is? Is it fair to hire a hit man to eliminate a human life?"

Benedict died on Dec. 31.

Nick Givas

Source: https://justthenews.com/nation/religion/vatican-snub-catholic-joe-biden-not-invited-pope-benedicts-funeral-late-pontiffs

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Biden to visit southern border amid migration surge, two years after taking office - Ben Whedon

 

by Ben Whedon

Republicans have derided the situation at the porous border as a crisis and heavily scrutinized the leadership of both Biden and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

 

President Joe Biden will visit the U.S. border with Mexico next week amid an unprecedented surge in illegal migration, he confirmed to reporters on Wednesday.

While traveling to Kentucky, Biden was asked if he was "going to the border," to which he responded "[t]hat's my intention," according to the New York Post.

A record 2.4 million migrants illegally entered the United States in fiscal year 2022 alone, with roughly 4 million doing so since Biden took office. Republicans have derided the situation at the porous border as a crisis and heavily scrutinized the leadership of both Biden and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Biden tapped to address migration issues, visited the border in mid-2021, months after her appointment as "border czar." 

In a bid to highlight the Biden administration's handling of the situation, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has spearheaded a move to bus illegal migrants to sanctuary cities and left-wing bastions, sending many to Washington, D.C., and dumping them on Harris's doorstep.

This week, Colorado's Democratic Governor Jared Polis let New York City Mayor Eric Adams know that he was also going to be bussing migrants to the Big Apple. 

Ben Whedon

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/biden-visit-southern-border-amid-migration-surge-two-years-after-taking-office

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What Lies Ahead for Trump and We the People? - Bruce Thornton

 

by Bruce Thornton

In the end, we will make the choice.

 

In January of 2020, the prospects for our country were looking good. Under Donald Trump––a populist outsider who galvanized the voters whose interests and concerns the bipartisan political establishment either ignored or dismissed––our future was promising.

From the beginning of his administration, Trump had started fulfilling his campaign promises to fix the problems that troubled his constituency, such as a porous border, free-loading allies, China’s economic predation, and feckless globalist shibboleths like the “rules-based international order” that under the globalist Barack Obama gave us the Munich-class appeasement of Iran with the nuclear deal, and the economically poisonous Paris climate accord, putting the interests of the globalist Davoisie over our own national interests and security.

Looking ahead back then, it seemed that a booming economy, record low minority unemployment, energy independence, our country’s restored prestige abroad, and three Constitutionalist Supreme Court Justices all pointed to a likely second term for Trump.

Then Covid happened. Reckless mitigation protocols like shutting down schools and the economy created the kind of crisis wannabe tyrants never let go to waste. More specifically, the lockdowns provided a rationale for multiplying mail-in ballots, which are so prone to corruption that only one-third of nations holding regular elections allow them.

We don’t know for a fact that these unusual circumstances contributed to the election of a notorious political mediocrity and addled serial grifter. But that doesn’t mean it’s a fact that the election was clean. The unseemly haste and vehemence with which the Rhino and NeverTrump “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” Republicans announced that the election was completely legitimate was itself suspicious, given the numerous anomalies of the campaign and election, and the “trout in the milk-pail” circumstantial evidence like ballot harvesting––after all, you may not know who put the trout there, but you know for sure it didn’t swim into it by itself.

At any rate, Trump was indeed the victim of egregious political malfeasance and corruption that made election fraud more believable in the case of  the “by any means necessary” progressive Dems:

• The Dems had weaponized the FBI and DOJ to peddle the Russia collusion hoax, and a Democrat House held multiple show-trial hearings and staged two impeachments that criminalized political differences.
• The political establishment and media were despicably unfair to Trump, indulging preposterous double-standards like “election denier,” an epithet never applied to two noisy and bitter “deniers” like Hillary Clinton and Georgia’s Stacey Abrams.
• The Dem House made preposterous charges of fomenting an “insurrection” on January 6, based on specious evidence and hear-say, with the committee stacking the deck to make sure no Republican could cross-examine dubious witnesses.
• The bankrupt media, dead-tree and social, before the election colluded with the FBI to keep hidden the bombshell scandal of Hunter Biden’s laptop, which is filled with evidence of the Biden family corruption––a huge in-kind contribution to Biden’s campaign.

All despicable, all true. But once the election was over save for the formality of recording the electoral college votes, all those legitimate grievances were in the past, where Trump should have left them. His obsessive harping, like the Ancient Mariner, on the 2020 election grew tiresome and annoying for many voters. Then there’s Trump’s throwing his support only to those Republican midterm candidates who soothed his “stolen election” pique. Even though the charge of electoral fraud could be true, Trump’s constant dwelling on it when nothing could change the outcome put off many voters and helped to drain what should have been an electoral tsunami for the GOP.

Nor did Trump’s cheesy publicity stunts like hawking his “official Donald Trump Digital Trading Card collection” comprising “limited edition cards featuring amazing ART of my Life & Career,” give him much gravitas for a run in 2024. Neither did a lunch with notorious anti-Semites Kanye West and Nick Fuentes. Then there’s his tin-eared statement that the contested outcome of the 2020 election “allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” Sounding like a “living Constitution” progressive isn’t a winner for conservatives.

Even more oddly, Trump began the new year by blaming the Republicans’ disappointing midterm  election results on their “mishandling” of the “abortion issue” by not allowing exceptions like rape.  But as Robert Spencer pointed out, not one Republican candidate in November ran or “firmly insisted on No Exceptions, even in the case of Rape, Incest, or Life of the Mother,” as Trump claimed. Such comments suggest an effort to deflect attention from Trump’s failed midterm candidates.

These unforced errors, along with the House committee’s recommendation that the DOJ should indict Trump, and the release of six-years of his tax-records, have contributed to perceptions that he is damaged political goods. As the Wall Street Journal reported recently, polls are starting to notice: “By 2-1, GOP and GOP-leaning voters now say they want Trump’s policies but a different standard-bearer to carry them. While 31% want the former president to run, 61% prefer some other Republican nominee who would continue the policies Trump has pursued.”

Worse, Trump’s gaffes and legal problems have made him look like a sore loser, and that’s politically toxic. The fact is, as Hillary Clinton learned, Americans don’t like losers, especially ones who continually whine about their losses.

Again, there’s no question that what has happened to Trump hasn’t been fair, and in some cases has been patently illegal. But democratic politics since the ancient Athenians has never been fair, for it is often based on subjective perceptions rather than objective achievements. No matter how many Trump policies have benefitted voters, many have been forgotten in the perception, fair or not, that he is a self-absorbed loser.

And don’t forget, in democracies, the most important question is, “What have you done for me lately?” The future, not the past, is what motivates voters. That’s how Trump won in 2016: he was a fresh set of eyes on our problems that under political guildsmen like his predecessor Barack Obama and his opponent Hillary Clinton, had been allowed to fester.

All this brings us to contemplate the next few years, about which Biden’s two years of abject failures have left us pessimistic. All threaten the integrity of our Constitutional order, our prosperity, and our freedoms:

• The “woke” assault on our families, sexual morality, history, national heroes, popular culture.
• The school curricula polluted by crude, unscientific racist fads and anti-science transsexual propaganda.
• The disastrous Covid mitigation protocols, about which Hoover senior fellow Scott Atlas writes, “professors with prestigious titles and affiliations denied scientific data about risks, effective mitigation and biological protection,” and “who spouted politicized opinion as if it were objective truth and demonized views counter to their preferred narrative.”
• The war on police, and the rogue prosecutors filling the streets with violent felons.
• The suicidal war on carbon that has left our electric grid vulnerable to severe weather and the machinations of our rivals.
• The censorship hollowing out our First Amendment.
• The inflation and a looming recession brought on by feckless spending and metastasizing debt.
• The de facto amnesty policy on the southern border that is allowing millions of unvetted illegal aliens and tons of dangerous drugs to be distributed throughout the country.
• The foreign policy of retreat coupled with an involvement in Ukraine, now costing $100 billion with little explanation for why, and no plan for how this stalemated conflict will end short of a dangerous escalation.

We need bold new policies to slow down our country’s suicide, and a fresh face younger than 60 and untainted by the D.C. company-town’s failures.

But right now, Donald Trump isn’t that fresh face anymore. His persona, policies, and in-your-face personality once were exciting and new compared to the old blue-suit and blow-dried hair Republican company men who many conservatives believed, fairly or not, had serially assumed the preemptive cringe in the face of the Democrats’ assaults on Constitutional rights and freedoms. Now Trump seems predictable and stale, an old champion who’s past his prime.

Again, Trump and his supporters will dispute that assessment. But its truth is not the point. The Roman poet Vergil wrote, “They have power because they seem to have power.” Perception, especially in a media world saturated with information, opinions, and images––an ever-shifting kaleidoscope spinning 24/7/365––frequently decides elections, not facts, truth, or principles.

Ultimately, however, what I or anybody else thinks is not the point. This spring the presidential campaign will rev up, and in 2024 the voters will decide who will represent the Republican Party. Will Donald Trump catch lightning in a bottle once more? I wouldn’t count him out. But in 2016, Trump was the new kid in town, facing off with one of the most unpleasant and mediocre establishment candidates since World War II. There’s a good chance that won’t be the case in 2024. There’s a governor in Florida who’s young and accomplished and has shown he will fight against the “woke” lunacy of our times. Dems aren’t rooting for Ron DeSantis the way they are for Donald Trump.

Obviously, a lot can happen in two years, most of it unforeseen. Trump himself in 2016 proved that banal truth. But in the end, we the people will make the choice, and for good or ill, we the people will have to live with it.

Bruce Thornton is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, an emeritus professor of classics and humanities at California State University, Fresno, and a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. His latest book is Democracy’s Dangers and Discontents: The Tyranny of the Majority from the Greeks to Obama.

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/what-lies-ahead-for-trump-and-we-the-people/

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